Join us for the 2016 IVAW National Convention

Join us September 2-5 for IVAW's 2016 National Convention at Stony Point, NY.

Over labor day weekend we are going to be headed to Stony Point Retreat Center about an hour outside of New York City for our annual convention. We are going to focus on Drop the MIC and what our moment looks like and how we can build an anti-militarist focus with our movement allies. Convention starts Thursday September 1st with a public event in Brooklyn and officially ends Monday September 5th but we have rooms reserved for that evening as well. Many folks will be headed out Monday morning.

We will have workshops on skill building, the political moment we are in, and we will do the business of the organization including deciding our new organizational name, and voting for Board members and resolutions. Since we will be near the Hudson River and out in nature expect some activities in the wilderness.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - 8:37am

Registration is a sliding scale from $100-$200. We are asking everyone to contribute what they can and we will have travel funds and additional hardship scholarships available to members.

9:30-11:30 Time for meetings and gathering that come up over the weekend

Airport shuttles, travel day.

12:00-2:00 Board Meeting

Workshop Descriptions:

Friday 10:00-12:00

TRE (Lovella Calica)

TRE (Tension & Trauma Release Exercise) is an innovative series of simple exercises that assist the body in releasing deep muscular patterns of stress, tension and trauma. Created by Dr. David Berceli, PhD, TRE safely activates a natural reflex mechanism of shaking or vibrating that releases muscular tension, calming down the nervous system. When this muscular shaking/vibrating mechanism is activated in a safe and controlled environment, the body is encouraged to return back to a state of balance. For more info about TRE: www.treforall.com

You will need to wear comfy clothes and reserve about 60-90 minutes.

For those of you who don't know TRE has been incredibly transformative for me in my personal life, I a, a much happier and less anxious person than I was. I have made such huge leaps in the past couple years because of TRE. I decided to get trained in this process so that I could share it with veterans and others because I know its positive, life-changing effects.

Flow Fundamentals: Peak Performance (Brock Harris)

Flow is the peak performance state of human awareness where you feel and perform your best. We can Identify the characteristics of flow and apply them to a multitude of activities throughout a range of human experiences. The goal is to create a synergistic habit (Force Multiplier) that dynamically improves any aspect of life, especially in those areas of need. This is an interdisciplinary workshop aimed to address people from all walks of life, from leaders on down to new members and supporters of our organization.

Friday 2:00-3:00

Tea Performance With Aaron Hughes

Artist and IVAW member of IVAW, Aaron Hughes, hosts a performance and discussion that traverses a variety of landscapes. From the tea sipped at a family gathering, to a cage in Guantanamo Bay, to a motor pool in Iraq, tea is not only a favored drink, but a shared moment that transcends cultural divides and systems of oppression. Tea Performances utilize the space created when someone sits, sips, and reflects over a cup of tea to ask questions about one’s relationship to the world: a world that’s filled with dehumanization, war, and destruction; a world that’s filled with moments of beauty, love, and humanity.

Saturday Session 1. 9:15-10:30

Member Orientation (Jovanni Reyes)

Agitate! Educate! Organize! have been the signature cry for labor movements and women’s suffrage for a long time. But the slogan stands true today as it did decades ago for all and any social action movement, including a pro-peace veterans movements such as ours. Most veterans who reach out to us do so because of anger and opposition to the politics of permanent war our country is currently exercising. They reach out because they are agitated and restless and want to join other veterans of liked mind with the hope of doing something. The first step for action is already done- joining a group. But to become effective and work towards the change we want to see, and not just the one we hope for, we need to educate ourselves and organize. And organizing starts at the basic membership. The new member orientation program is designed to bring new members on board with the culture and work of IVAW and to start the transformative education process that is needed to be an effective member for the change we want to create.

Roles of IVAW Leaders (Penny Dex)

In these trying times, a good leader is always searching for theory and reflection on how to build grassroots mass movements with edge and consciousness. Too many of our lessons and wisdom have largely been lost within our movement. While new generations are often inspired by the legacies that came before us, we often can’t find the mentors to pass on lessons learned. From relative obscurity, we are then forced to chart our paths to power through trial and error. Or at least we were until Eric Mann published Playbook for Progressives. An organizing manifesto for the twenty-first century, this comprehensive guide articulates pragmatically what is required in the often mystifying and rarely explained on-the-ground practice of organizing. In this workshop, IVAW Organizer Penny Dex gives framework to the roles leaders play in our communities and distills lessons she has learned from the playbook as well as qualities every good IVAW leader should exemplify.

Developing our Cadre (Maggie Martin)

This session is for IVAW’s most experienced leaders to have a conversation about what IVAW needs for the long haul and what we each are willing to bring to the table to support the development of our organization, our fellow members, and our future members, some of whom are still being deployed.

Ally focused:

Working with Vets 101 (Lovella Callica)

This workshop is centered around building beneficial veteran-civilian relationships. We explore participant's perceptions about and relationships with veterans. We utilize creative writing/art-making, dialogue, participatory learning and active listening processes, as well as, the artwork of Veteran artists to guide our discussions. Some areas of learning & investigation include: veterans’ issues and experiences, PTSD, challenges/benefits of working with veterans, and specific information about healthy ways of engaging veterans. This workshop will provide a foundation from which civilian allies can build healthy and sustainable relationships with veterans and move toward creative collaboration. We also require any volunteers interested in facilitated Warrior Writers workshops to attend a training with us.

This workshop will provide the general context of the rise and utility of Islamophobic narratives in relation to U.S. Foreign policy and war; impact of Islamophobia on civil rights; and engaging the Islamophobic narratives in a constructive manner using Islamic perspectives.

VA Disability Claims: Untangling the Red Tape (Gina Bua)

Whether you are getting ready to file your first claim, considering a request for increased benefits, or want to help a friend -- this workshop is designed for you. The workshop will cover the best techniques to speed the processing of disability claims through the challenging maze of the VA bureaucracy.

Just Transition Strategy: Fighting the Bad & Building the New (GGJ, Jaron Brown)

Just Transition is framework for building campaigns that are both visionary and oppositional. Many times our movements are so focused on fighting against the attacks we are facing, we don't have the capacity to also advance demands that offer an alternative vision of the things we want. The concept of Just Transition grew out of the environmental justice movements over the last 30 years, where the struggles from impacted communities against coal mines and oil refineries are met in direct opposition by workers who depend on these dirty industries to survive. Just Transition campaigns across the country are not only fighting some of the worst manifestation of extraction, militarism, and pollution--they are also advancing real alternatives for both energy production and economic self-determination so that livelihood cannot be pitted against health or the environment. This workshop will explore the core principles behind the model of Just Transition and begin to raise the questions around what a Just Transition away from militarism could look like.

Bio: Jaron Browne is a National Organizer with Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, building out GGJ’s Just Transition work, including support for CJA’s Our Power Campaign, and other national and international climate justice and new economy campaigns. Before joining GGJ, Jaron was an organizer with POWER and Causa Justa::Just Cause for nearly 13 years in the Bay Area. Jaron helped to lead a campaign against the US Navy and the Lennar Corporation that succeeded in stopping the early transfer of a radiologically contaminated Superfund site for development before the land is fully cleaned

The workshop seeks to shed light on the rights of deported veterans and undocumented family members of American soldiers. Additionally, the framing at the core of this presentation is how the criminalization of people of color, especially black people, is ingrained in the immigration policy of this country.

A critique of the Nov. 20th Johnson Memo (2014) titled, "Families of U.S. Armed Forces Members and Enlistees" will be provided in the presentation and how the framing of "Felons not Families" hurts non-citizen soldiers and veterans and their families.

One-on-Ones (Perry O’Brien)

Even in a political landscape dominated by social media, the one-on-one conversation is still our most powerful tool to activate potential members and build relationships with allies. Many folks don’t realize that the "1-on-1” is a communication skill that has been honed over decades by unions, civil rights organizations, and other movements. This workshop focuses on the craft of the 1-on-1, including do’s and don’ts, with a specific emphasis on the IVAW/veteran context.

Bio: Hani Ghazi is a Palestinian American activist with Adalah-NY; the New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel. He leads the organizing committee in New York City for Israeli Apartheid Week, which is an annual educational event series that aims to raise public awareness about Palestine and Israel, and to build support for the BDS movement around the world."

Sunday Session 6. 10:45-12:00

Challenging the Veteran Mystique (Jose Vasquez)

Introduction to Public Narrative (Maggie Martin)

This workshop will begin to look at Marshall Ganz’s concept of public narrative as a source of one of IVAW’s greatest strengths. We will talk about how our members can share our stories and experiences as part of a strategy to inspire others to action.

Sunday Session 7. 2:00-3:15

Warrior Writers (Lovella Calica)

These creative workshops offer prompts that cover a variety of military issues and experiences. This encourages sharing stories, opinions, and ideas for productive writing/reflecting/story-telling and art-making. A highlight of these workshops for many veterans is having a space to release bottled-up thoughts and emotions among others who understand, creating a sense of empowerment in the ability to tell their own story. By creating an open and accepting atmosphere, we build a community of support. Workshops are for any service member or veteran regardless of experiences with writing, combat, art, deployment, etc.

Drop the MIC Working Session (Maggie Martin)

This workshop will focus on planning our fall speaking and political education tour with members and allies that want to work on holding down a stop on the tour tentitavely called the Ballot Boxes and Bombs Tour. The goal is to solitify some locations, choose the time frame, and brainstorm some creative ideas for the tour.

The Roots of Patriarchy and War (Shawna Foster)

Grassroots Global Justice, an organization that brings together frontline communities and people of color, is a member of the World March of Women. In March, they held a feminist organizing school to identify to create a new global understanding of feminism free of colonialism and oppression. What do these new definitions have to do with war; how does feminism help us understand war?

Sunday Session 8. 3:30-4:45

#VetsVsHate (Ramon Mejia)

#VetsVsHate is a veteran initiative pushing back against fear-mongering and bigotry.

With the growing proto-fascist, white-supremacist movement in the Republican Party...

As veterans, we confront and stop the verbal and physical targeting of Muslims. Along with on-the-ground nonviolent protest/civil disobedience actions against the vitriol being directed at Muslims. Come hear about how the initiative got started, what we’ve done together so far, and help make some plans for our future work together challenging hate and bogotry.

Action Planning (L.J. Amsterdam)

Every successful social movement has strategically mobilized tactics of nonviolent direct action. In this workshop, we'll look at the functions, logics, potentials, and power of direct action, and explore how creative action can escalate a campaign and build community. Participants will practice planning their own direct action, identifying their action's point of intervention, goal, message, target, tone, and audience.

Housing is on-site and included with event registration

Rooms are shared, two beds in each one (unless people need individual rooms). All meals are provided for and are organic and grown from their garden. All dietary needs will be met.

Travel scholarships are available for IVAW members and we encourage those who need the help to apply right away deadline for applications is August 5th. Travel will be available on a first come first serve basis for members who have registered, paid dues in the past 12 months, and have a good proof of service on file.

Childcare will be available to IVAW members and their guests. Children should be registered at the discounted child rate.